


A Golden Band (In My Dreams)

by yoonmin35trash



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Barista!Felix, Best Friends, Felix gets sad, Fluff, M/M, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmates, changlix, minsung - Freeform, student!changbin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-29 19:36:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19026529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yoonmin35trash/pseuds/yoonmin35trash
Summary: Felix sees everyone around him finding their soulmates at a young age. All he wants is to have the same thing but fate has other ideas. Yet when he starts a new job, his income isn't the only change to his life.





	A Golden Band (In My Dreams)

**Author's Note:**

> I've never written SKZ fics before so please be nice with me in terms of character personalities! Comments/feedback is valued and appreciated! <3

Felix opened up Snapchat, pulled a face at the front-facing camera, and took a selfie to show his displeasure. Across the room, on the other end of the ‘L’-shaped couch, Jisung and Minho were wrapped up in all their coupling affection. Felix grimaced at them, rolling his eyes as Minho planted a kiss on Jisung’s cheek, nuzzling into the other boy’s neck. He wasn’t sure if the sickening affection was worse than the make out sessions he often heard them having whilst they cooked dinner. Not dinner for him; no, the couple were too wrapped up in each other to remember the rest of the world existed sometimes. Still, they were two of his best friends and he loved them  _ and  _ lived with Jisung. If he had to endure the couple as a trade for having somewhere to live then he could survive it.

Felix tapped his screen, bringing up the caption.  _ If I have to witness or hear Minsung make out one more time then I’m going to vomit.  _ Pouting, he sent the caption to Woojin, hoping for some sympathy. The couple were fairly new, and Minho laughed that Felix would understand when he got his own boyfriend one day.

_ One day. _

After he sent his self-pity snapchat, he dropped his attention back onto the couple. Their intertwined hands meant that their hands pressed together, the bands on their wrists visible. Everyone got a band, no matter who they were. Alone, the bands were red and thin. Once that band found it’s partner--because although every band looked the same, it’s system was different and only hard-wired to one other particular band--it went thick and golden, so much it could be mistaken as just another piece of jewellery. Of course there was many cases where bands found more than one partner, and the bands only got brighter and bolder.

Felix pouted at his own band, red and spindly, fitted to his skin. God, how he wanted to see that amber colour start to seep in to the red, spreading over the band until it turned full golden. Once the amber started it meant he had met his soulmate. It meant he was on the right path to happiness--or as much happiness as love could bring him.

Suddenly, a cushion hit him. Felix startled and looked up. Both Jisung and Minho looked at him expectantly. “What time’s your interview today?”

“My what?” Felix asked, frowning.

“Your job interview?” Minho said, more a question, doubting himself. Felix stared at the two boys for one second, then another, waiting to remember what the interview was for. He looked at his phone time, blinking slowly, before tapping on his emails.

And--

“ _ Fuck _ !” he cursed loudly, leaping off the couch.

“Don’t swear! You’re too soft for swear words!” Minho called as he dashed from the room. The interview he had forgotten about started at two o’clock; it was twelve-thirty now but his hair was greasy, he hadn’t showered, and he still had to ride the bus for the half-hour journey to the new university campus where he was interviewing for a barista job. As he jumped two stairs at a time he heard Jisung laughing at him.

“Could you make me some food before I go instead of smashing mouths constantly?” Felix yelled down once he hit the landing. There was a grumble from Minho before he heard the shuffling of feet.

“Smashing mouths,” Jisung muttered. “That’s one way to describe a kiss.” Then, a little louder, he shouted, “Your jealousy is showing!”

Felix rolled his eyes and all but vaulted into the shower, yanking his clothes off as he went. He would make it. If anything, Felix was good at pretending to be punctual. On the outside, he arrived on time to everything. On the inside, he had only started getting ready half an hour before but nobody could tell that nor accuse him.

 

*

 

The new campus was due to open in a week, which is when Felix’s job would start. He’d never been there but he was assured in his interview that as it specialised in creative subjects whilst the academic subjects were in another building, it wouldn’t ever get too busy. University didn’t have communal lunch breaks like college or high school did. People came and went as they pleased. Working in the Starbucks branch within the university, Felix realised he was bound to meet an array of new people. As he left the campus, he flicked his band as if that would get it to work. Whilst it was an opportunity to get off his ass and make money perhaps it was also an opportunity to meet his soulmate.

The idea was laughable but he couldn’t quite tamper down the miniscule flame of hope in him.

When he returned home, Minho had left. Jisung lounged on the couch, watching reruns of an old show. He looked up, eyes wide and imploring. “How did it go?”

“Good!” Felix said. “I got the job provisionally. I have a trial shift on Tuesday next week.”

Jisung shot up quickly, grin appearing, before dragging Felix into the kitchen. They had a shared calendar for any dates the other wanted to remember. He wrote down Felix’s trial shift for Tuesday. “Time?”

“Oh.” Felix scrunched his nose, trying to remember. “Two-thirty until seven.”

Jisung wrote it down and punctuated the note with a smiley face and explanation point. “There! A new chapter for your life!”

Felix considered admitting his secret theory that a new social environment meant more of a chance to meet new people--to meet his soulmate. Jisung was his best friend--they had done everything together since college, had shared every secret and weird thought. Felix had been there when Minho had come into Jisung’s life in the form of a college student who had hit Jisung in the chest playing dodgeball whilst on opposing teams. Jisung had been from one college, Minho from another across the city. That dodgeball match was their first meeting and their soulmate existence literally slammed into them.

And yet when Felix had these thoughts he couldn’t bring himself to share. There were countless ways he could meet his soulmate. He could travel to Iceland and his soulmate be the receptionist of the hotel he stayed at. His soulmate could be  _ anywhere _ . People weren’t meant to live their whole lives without meeting their soulmate but he could. It had been known. It was a miserable existence but it could happen to him. Jisung would be optimistic, he knew, but that was what he was afraid of. He had to keep his hopes lowered.

“What’s wrong?” Jisung asked, brows pinching together.

“It’s nothing,” Felix muttered, knowing he needed to just put his silly thoughts to rest. He went to leave the kitchen but Jisung grasped his shoulders, making him stay put. For such a small, doe-eyed boy, he had strength to keep him in place.

“Talk to me.”

The offer was gentle, light. Felix knew Jisung wouldn’t force anything out of him unless he felt ready to discuss it. He looked at his best friend, the sandy-blonde hair catching the harsh kitchen light; his eyes, open and wide, his mouth slightly parted, waiting for Felix.

He could trust his best friend. Maybe Minho could get on some high horse about soulmates but Jisung would talk to him. Maybe.

So, in a tiny voice, giving his worry an inch, he said, “What if I never find my soulmate?” His voice cracked at the end of the question. Jisung’s expression crumpled, a small sound escaping as he tugged Felix into a tight hug. Felix let himself break down in his friend’s hold, sobbing quietly into his shirt.

“Felix, you’re only nineteen. You have time to find the love of your life, your soulmate.”

“You’re nineteen,” Felix pouted.

“I’m older than you.”

Felix pulled back, frowning. “By  _ one day _ .”

That had Jisung grinning. “A lot can happen in one day.” He shook his head. “Me and Minho… We were lucky, our situation was pure coincidence. Say I’d been unwell at that match and couldn’t make it I never would have met him. Or vice versa. That’s what fate is, and that’s what our world believes in. My parents didn’t meet until their late twenties, so you have time.”

“But I don’t want time,” Felix pressed, not caring if he sounded childish. “I want to meet them now. This is the age to have fun, to be carefree, right? This is the age where every love song talks about the good things happening.”

Jisung laughed gently. “They’re just songs, and half of the artists singing them haven’t experienced what they sing about, okay? Don’t take that on face value. Love can happen at anytime. This free life you’re after… It doesn’t have an expiry date. Your soulmate could be waiting for you anywhere.”

“I know but I feel like I’m missing out. I feel like I’m sad and lonely and this lone boy waiting for love. It makes me feel stupid.”

Jisung planted a kiss on his forehead. “You’re not stupid. You’re Felix, and Felix is my amazing best friend.”

A little part of him lightened up, tried to take heed of his friend’s words. Jisung was right; he didn’t have to waste his life wishing for someone else to complete it. Yet if there  _ was  _ someone out there who could fill in the blanks of Felix’s life then he wanted to find them. He wanted to meet them. He wanted to know what kind of person they were.

And most importantly, if they matched well with him. Some soulmates were incompatible but their bands still went golden. Felix had heard of that, where the soulmates spent their entire lives arguing or clashing. That didn’t sound desirable.

“Come on,” Jisung said, tugging on his shirt.

“Where are we going?”

“I’m taking you out for lunch.”

Felix hesitated. “BBQ?”

“Always.”

And that brought a smile to his face. Maybe he shouldn’t rush trying to find his soulmate. Maybe he would wait for so long to find them and then they wouldn’t even a good match.

Or maybe, just maybe, they would be perfect for him.


End file.
